A practical guide to quitting your smartphone • Hacker News Board

Re: A practical guide to quitting your smartphone

#301

Post by Syonyk » Mon, Feb 05, 2024, 4:34 PM UTC

ryandrake wrote: post #125

dorkwood wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I DONT WANT TO TALK to people in grocery line, especially when I don't have a phone. I perfectly ok to just stand quietly. I do! My day is almost always made better by a random encounter with a stranger. I wish I was confident enough to start those interactions myself, but I always inevitably think back to messages such as yours, and my anxiety gets the better of me.

I used to value a random encounter with a stranger. Now, the median person is likely to be 1. Disturbed, 2. Obsessed with politics, 3. Belligerent for no reason, 4. Ready to whip out their phone camera looking for “content” or 5. Generally offended/Scared of the idea of talking to a random stranger. The last 3 or so years have turned America into a giant mental asylum and it’s starting to be not worth it to talk to a…

> The last 3 or so years have turned America into a giant mental asylum and it’s starting to be not worth it to talk to a rando.

It's more than the past 3 years. People really started coming unhinged in late 2016, by my observations. But the trend has been increasing for a while, and I'm willing to point a pretty sharp finger at the various social media, news, etc companies who are enabled in their "pour liquid oxygen on the fires of division for stoking outrage in the pursuit of more ad views" by things like the smart phone - because now someone is connected 24/7, by default.

Host firepit nights and invite people. I've yet to find a better solution to getting good actual conversations going than to have regular firepit nights (right now, I have one a week, and would like to get another few per month going this summer with different groups of people). Yes, some people will look at you like you're nuts, and others will turn into solid friends.

Fundamentally, I don't think we're going to fix the problems of smartphones and consumer tech (in the general "surveillance capitalism" sense) with more of that stuff.

Re: A practical guide to quitting your smartphone

#302

Post by Syonyk » Mon, Feb 05, 2024, 4:40 PM UTC

magicmicah85 wrote: post #277

I would rather not go back to a flip phone, so good on anyone that can and is happy with it. I do not miss T9 texting. What worked for me was I shifted my mind to stop thinking of my phone as a daily necessity and more as a multi-function tool. Screen Time helped to identify the apps I'm using the most. I started with deleting the time wasting apps - Reddit, twitter, tiktok, instagram - all gone. If it's really impor…

> I do not miss T9 texting.

I don't mind it. It's easier to do half-blind and just sanity check your results.

But more importantly, it's been a thing I use to move some longer form interactions to email. I won't have a long form conversation via text anymore, I go to a proper keyboard.

Re: A practical guide to quitting your smartphone

#303

Post by Ostrogoth » Mon, Feb 05, 2024, 4:49 PM UTC

I was a relative early adopter of smartphones, and have used one for most of my adult life (since university). For me it is an incredibly useful and almost irreplaceable daily tool: - photography and audio recording - note taking - maps/navigation/compass - email - file management - messaging/audio communication - tickets and traveling - language translation (does anyone have a recommendations for a less privacy invasive tool similar to Google Lens translation?) - calculators - emergency flashlight - fitness and health tracking - time keeping/alarms/timers - weather - quickly looking up information online - reminders/calendars and task management - books (both text and audio) - music storage and playback - banking/finance/payments - passwords and token management is far more convenient

I’m also on call for work 24/7, so quickly having access to employer’s and customer’s communication service, software, and files is a requirement.

All of these tasks could be completed using multiple different tools, but with immensely greater friction and difficulty. It amplifies and augments mental capabilities.

The downsides as I see them so far: - Constant access to data, distractions, news, communication reduces ability to focus and can create mental fatigue (but I already had issues with focusing anyway, so the benefits of time management outweigh the cons) - Social media…enough said - probably reduces memory and mental capacity as its easier to simply look something up or run a quick calculation than to remember data or do mental math. So while it can augment mental capacity, it can also become a crutch. Like every new technology there are both benefits and cons. It requires leveraging the new technology in a way that benefits you, and mitigating or managing any negative impacts.

Re: A practical guide to quitting your smartphone

#304

Post by JohnFen » Mon, Feb 05, 2024, 4:54 PM UTC

snarkyturtle wrote: post #254

tristor wrote: post #252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm curmudgeonly enough that I'd tend to agree with you, however as someone who travels often I don't think I could ever give up my smartphone. I actually had a smartphone and some other similar devices well ahead of them being popular, and the reasons pretty much have not changed. Here are the things I don't have a reasonable alternative, because it's not just the capability, it's the capability backed by the Intern…

Really it's just social media that's terrible. If all the social media apps go away, you still get left with all the above and can contact people you know. Algorithmic recommendations and flame wars with strangers are the worst things about smartphones — and they're not limited to them either.

> Really it's just social media that's terrible.

Not for me. I don't use social media (I'm even one of those few people who spend less than an hour or two per day using my smartphone at all), but smartphones are still a real problem for me.

Re: A practical guide to quitting your smartphone

#305

Post by JohnFen » Mon, Feb 05, 2024, 4:59 PM UTC

didntcheck wrote: post #287

snarkyturtle wrote: post #254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Really it's just social media that's terrible. If all the social media apps go away, you still get left with all the above and can contact people you know. Algorithmic recommendations and flame wars with strangers are the worst things about smartphones — and they're not limited to them either.

Yep. It's kind of annoying to see people be so fatalistic about their self control that they think the only solution is to throw the baby out with the bathwater. I carry my smartphone everywhere for the useful functions detailed above, but the closest I get to social media is some idle HN commenting if I'm unexpectedly waiting around somewhere. It's really not hard to just not spend all day on Twitter of whatever. Th…

> I do resent things that require smartphone though.

I got trapped by this over the weekend. I had a date to a hot new restaurant in town. When we arrived, I discovered that not only do they not provide actual menus, requiring you to go to a website instead, they also don't let you order and pay except through that website (Toast).

I was livid. But I was on a date and so felt forced to smile and pretend everything was cool, and subject myself to what turned out to be a privacy policy and ToS that I would never have agreed to under any circumstances.

But lesson learned: now I need to call ahead to establishments to ask if they force their customers to use that sort of nonsense, so I won't get trapped again.

Re: A practical guide to quitting your smartphone

#306

Post by JohnFen » Mon, Feb 05, 2024, 5:04 PM UTC

throw4847285 wrote: post #291

tristor wrote: post #252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm curmudgeonly enough that I'd tend to agree with you, however as someone who travels often I don't think I could ever give up my smartphone. I actually had a smartphone and some other similar devices well ahead of them being popular, and the reasons pretty much have not changed. Here are the things I don't have a reasonable alternative, because it's not just the capability, it's the capability backed by the Intern…

As an aside, I know for a fact that 4 (ridesharing) is possible without a smart phone... if you speak Yiddish. In Williamsburg, Brooklyn I saw an ad for an integration between flip phones and Lyft geared towards the Chasidic population many of whom believe that it is forbidden to own a smartphone but OK to have a flip phone. I haven't dug into the internal reasoning from a Jewish legal perspective, but from the outsi…

The problem I've found with flip phones is that they're still smartphones, complete with apps. Just very limited smartphones.

I want an actual dumbphone, but I can't find any on the market anywhere.

Re: A practical guide to quitting your smartphone

#307

Post by ianburrell » Mon, Feb 05, 2024, 5:18 PM UTC

Aurornis wrote: post #165

Syonyk wrote: post #83

I am so glad to see this backlash. It's been a long time coming. We've tried smartphones out for the past... oh, decade and change. They've been around longer, but were niche enough that they didn't dominate society, and even around the start of the iPhone era, "Crackberry" and such were common enough terms (with "Put all your devices in the center, whoever picks theirs up first buys the next round" being a fun game…

> The results are solidly in: They're an utter disaster for most people, and for society at large. In no particular order, they ruin social interactions in public situations (think "talking to people in the grocery line" - though I've seen fewer people on their phones lately and can get some conversations going), I’m in the age group that is just old enough to remember adult life before everyone had smartphones. Hone…

Also, I don’t think of smartphones as the distraction problem since the distractions are also on laptop and tablet. There are only a couple app that are only on phone, but there are also ones like Reddit and Hacker News that I don’t use on phone.

Telling people not use smartphones is like telling them to not use the Internet. People will need to figure out the distractions and social media with their phones.

Re: A practical guide to quitting your smartphone

#308

Post by BeetleB » Mon, Feb 05, 2024, 5:19 PM UTC

allthecybers wrote: post #105

BeetleB wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The only issue is my smartphone is now my GPS, my payment method, my home lighting controller, my car/house key, and my health tracker. If you use GPS only for navigation in a car, get a Garmin or something similar. Payment: Is it that hard to use a CC like most people do...? I only recently used my phone for payments (lost card and was waiting for replacement), and did not find it any more convenient than using a…

I understand your points. My macro point was that the smartphone introduced several very sticky conveniences, so I kept my smartphone instead of adopting a light phone or similar device. Instead, I am working on treating it as an appliance or a utility device vs. a constant extension of my arm. For example, my two vehicles can be accessed via a smartphone key/app or a card in my wallet. So my wallet is slimmer than b…

> Most phone lighting controls are convenient instead of getting up and going to the switch. But the phone allows for finer-grained control of light temperatures, brightness, electrical usage, etc.

Again, Google Home gives you most of that...

Fortunately for me, the for factor + UI of phones always sucked for me, so needing to use it for anything is a deterrent. I dislike small screens, and dislike non-physical keyboards. After decades of efficient PC usage, using a phone always feels like a speed bump.

It's good to have data on the go when needed, and good for camera. For everything else, it feels inferior. And whenever I find a really neat use for the phone, the Android Police clamp it down and break it (e.g. the AutoMagic app and automation in general).

Re: A practical guide to quitting your smartphone

#309

Post by throw4847285 » Mon, Feb 05, 2024, 5:24 PM UTC

JohnFen wrote: post #306

throw4847285 wrote: post #291

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As an aside, I know for a fact that 4 (ridesharing) is possible without a smart phone... if you speak Yiddish. In Williamsburg, Brooklyn I saw an ad for an integration between flip phones and Lyft geared towards the Chasidic population many of whom believe that it is forbidden to own a smartphone but OK to have a flip phone. I haven't dug into the internal reasoning from a Jewish legal perspective, but from the outsi…

The problem I've found with flip phones is that they're still smartphones, complete with apps. Just very limited smartphones. I want an actual dumbphone, but I can't find any on the market anywhere.

Funnily enough, if you're shopping for a "kosher phone" you can actually choose between a smartphone with a limited number of apps to fit in with your religious strictures, or an actually bonafide dumb phone.

https://koshercell.org/collections/dumb-phones

Though there may be other features of a Kosher phone that don't make it a good choice for somebody who wants a dumb phone but doesn't live within a specific type of insular religious community. I'm not sure.

Re: A practical guide to quitting your smartphone

#310

Post by valbaca » Mon, Feb 05, 2024, 5:26 PM UTC

ProllyInfamous wrote: post #293

debok wrote: post #219

I found the following 3 measures quite helpful to make my smartphone less intrusive in my daily life: 1: I don't bring my smartphone into my bedroom. My bedroom is a personal and intimate space, no need for the outside world to barge in via smartphone. 2: I disable or silence every notification I get. The only time my phone draws my attention is if I am getting a phone call, my wife texts me, or if I get a Pagerduty.…

Re: #2 My phone is like yours, it only rings for a certain few. I do not know what "Pagerduty" is, but I purchased numeric telephone paging service [to a "beeper"] and give this number to the few important people in my life that need to be able to get my attention. Surprisingly, paging services still exist across metro-US, even in 2024 [I use pagerdirect, no affiliation]. #4: I rarely leave my house with a cell phone…

> I do not know what "Pagerduty" is

You lucky bastard.

It's for getting paged into on-call events. It shows you don't go on-call which makes me want to know...is your company hiring? haha